New Math

Johnny reads the Sun Sentinel every day. It takes him 30 minutes. On Sundays, it takes him two times as long, plus another 15 minutes to clip the coupons. One Sunday, Johnny's brother, who is three times more than half Johnny's age, calls to ask Johnny a question. They talk for a quarter of the time it takes Johnny to read the paper every day, including Sundays, except for the one Tuesday when Johnny's Aunt Hilda, whose age is Johnny's brother's age multiplied by three, needed to bring it to work.

It is a well-known fact that the United States no longer ranks at the top in the world in student math achievement. To do their part to turn this trend around - and to help their students be more successful in math - administrators at the David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie are implementing new math curriculums in their elementary and middle schools this upcoming academic year. For kindergarten and first grade, the school is introducing a program called "Abacus Math. " The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes.

The Miami Heat's Big Three are winning together to a degree because of how coach Erik Spoelstra has kept them apart. Saturday's Christmas crushing of the Los Angeles Lakers offered the most recent example. With 3:26 to play in the first quarter, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh left the court together. At the start of the second quarter, it was LeBron James who was out, with Wade and Bosh back in. Shortly after James returned, Wade and Bosh went to the bench. The pattern was the same in the second half, with Wade and Bosh checking out with 2:46 to play in the third quarter and then opening the fourth quarter together while James was on the bench.

The Miami Heat's Big Three are winning together to a degree because of how coach Erik Spoelstra has kept them apart. Saturday's Christmas crushing of the Los Angeles Lakers offered the most recent example. With 3:26 to play in the first quarter, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh left the court together. At the start of the second quarter, it was LeBron James who was out, with Wade and Bosh back in. Shortly after James returned, Wade and Bosh went to the bench. The pattern was the same in the second half, with Wade and Bosh checking out with 2:46 to play in the third quarter and then opening the fourth quarter together while James was on the bench.

A new way of teaching math in Florida public schools next school year is sort of like addition by subtraction. Educators are excited that they'll be able to cover fewer topics in greater detail — however, they're seeking to place nearly $200 million in orders for new textbooks and materials. That's a hefty sum amid widespread budget shortfalls, but the payoff is expected to be students mastering skills rather than just scratching the surface. It also puts Florida ahead of a national movement to provide uniform and more rigorous math standards across the country.

I am pretty sick of your one-sided reporting as evidenced by your Sunday article, "Sales tax increase: the new math." This article points out only the negative aspects of the House's proposed property tax relief plan that eliminates property taxes for primary residences and increases the sales tax by 2.5 percent. Why don't you publish an article titled, "Property tax elimination" to balance your biased reporting? The real "new math" that you should explain is that for a homeowner that pays only $2,500 a year in property taxes, he or she would have to purchase over $100,000 a year in taxable goods in order to be worse off under the House plan.

Two irrational, expensive and inane Florida government-funded boondoggles are headed our way. First, a baseball stadium in Miami-Dade, second, a school voucher program. The stadium is to be funded by another "tourist tax" ($118 million) and the voucher program will be $3,000 per student. At this time 179,000 students would be eligible for the voucher (the school must be at 120 percent of capacity to get a voucher). Let's do the math: that's more than $500 million for the stadium and the vouchers.

By JEAN GONICK is a freelance writer. Her book, Mostly True Confessions: Looking for Love in the Eighties, will be published in May by Random House, February 9, 1986

I`VE JUST BEEN INTRODUCED TO THE new math, which is horrific for me because math courses are the ones I always failed in school. I can`t quite figure out these new equations. A 44-year-old doctor facilitated my introduction by telling me at a party that he only dated women in their mid-to-late 20s. "Let me get this straight," I said, balancing a drink and a hefty serving of pate. "I`m a decade younger than you are, but hypothetically I`m already too old for you. Right?" "There`s nothing hypothetical about it," he grinned.

Here's a math lesson for you. Add one 8-year-old boy to $880 in fake money and what do you get? Trouble. That's what an Ocala elementary student learned after he handed out hundreds of $20 bills to students at South Ocala Elementary School, reports the Ocala Star-Banner. Alas, the money was fake. When a cafeteria worker marked one note, it didn?t react to the marker. Enter: the cops. But it's not like the kid with the fake Jacksons was learning honesty at home. When police investigated, they found that both the kid's guardians have warrants for their arrest.

When Hui Fang Huang "Angie" Su first started teaching, she was the one with the math problem -- almost all of her students hated it. And for Su, of Boca Raton, that just didn't add up. She saw that her fourth grade gifted students couldn't perform simple math functions like borrowing, carrying over or multiplying. All but four of her 108 students told Su they hated math. "These kids were real bright. I asked them why they didn't like math, and they couldn't give me an answer," she said.

Johnny reads the Sun Sentinel every day. It takes him 30 minutes. On Sundays, it takes him two times as long, plus another 15 minutes to clip the coupons. One Sunday, Johnny's brother, who is three times more than half Johnny's age, calls to ask Johnny a question. They talk for a quarter of the time it takes Johnny to read the paper every day, including Sundays, except for the one Tuesday when Johnny's Aunt Hilda, whose age is Johnny's brother's age multiplied by three, needed to bring it to work.

I am disappointed and frustrated with the Go Math textbook for fourth grade. I sit with my daughter almost every night to aid her in completing her math homework. Even I am having difficulty understanding. I thought purchasing a text of our own would prove beneficial; however, it has not. I am told this is a new series and I would like to do whatever I can to make a change back to the older or a different series. I am very concerned that my daughter will not be on par with other fourth graders if Broward continues to use this book.

Room for improvement While student achievement in math has inched upward during the past decade, far too many pupils still don't understand math, officials say. Only 55 percent of Florida sixth-graders performed at or above grade level on last year's FCAT math exam. Fewer than 70 percent of students in sixth through 10th grade achieved proficiency in math. The best results came from third-graders, with 78 percent of students meeting high standards. The cost of changing standards Math textbooks and materials, 2010-11 school year estimates Per student, statewide Grade 3: $90.79 Grade 7: $71.49 Grade 10: $77.47 By district Palm Beach County: $15 million Broward County: $17 million Statewide: $194 million Example from the new standards The new standards are designed to be clearly focused so students grasp the concepts, officials say. For example, one sixth-grade standard requires students to "solve real-world problems involving multiplication and division of fractions and decimals."

A new way of teaching math in Florida public schools next school year is sort of like addition by subtraction. Educators are excited that they'll be able to cover fewer topics in greater detail — however, they're seeking to place nearly $200 million in orders for new textbooks and materials. That's a hefty sum amid widespread budget shortfalls, but the payoff is expected to be students mastering skills rather than just scratching the surface. It also puts Florida ahead of a national movement to provide uniform and more rigorous math standards across the country.

Attending a state university this fall? Get ready to dig deep into your wallet. As universities deal with millions in state budget cuts, they are looking more to tuition and fees to make up the difference. This fall, students should expect to pay up to 15 percent more in tuition than last year, a first-time technology fee and increases in other fees. The price tag at most state universities will be about $4,200 this fall, up about $500 from last year. That doesn't include increases in housing and meal plans, parking permits and other charges.

John "Blue Moon" Odom laughs and shakes his head when approached about the subject of pitch counts. Specifically, why is it that the modern-day pitcher is treated as though his arm might explode with every pitch past No. 100 on a given night while a generation or two ago pitchers routinely flew right past that mark without giving it a second thought? "Back then I think we were in better shape because we didn't use a lot of weights and treadmills," says Odom, who pitched for the great Oakland A's dynasty of the early 1970s.

The Broward Community College board of trustees on Tuesday rejected two bids for construction of a new math/science center at the college`s north campus because of irregularities in the bids. The new center is needed because the north campus in Coconut Creek has only two science laboratories and more facilities are needed to meet the demand for science classes, said Stephen Barker, dean of academic affairs. The bids that were received to build the new center exceeded the amount of money the state had allocated for the project, college President Willis Holcombe said.

Morning after morning, while reading the Sun-Sentinel, I usually am shocked by the tabloid-esque quality of the front page. Aug. 24 was the topper that urged me to write. Let's compare the big, colorful features on the front page -- Dan Marino, Tillie Tooter and Survivor -- to the featured news articles of The New York Times on that day: "Democrats take campaign to Florida," "Human embryo cell research," "Cheney's business dealings," "Diabetes rises," "New math for staffing classes," all very relevant news for South Floridians.

Here's a math lesson for you. Add one 8-year-old boy to $880 in fake money and what do you get? Trouble. That's what an Ocala elementary student learned after he handed out hundreds of $20 bills to students at South Ocala Elementary School, reports the Ocala Star-Banner. Alas, the money was fake. When a cafeteria worker marked one note, it didn?t react to the marker. Enter: the cops. But it's not like the kid with the fake Jacksons was learning honesty at home. When police investigated, they found that both the kid's guardians have warrants for their arrest.